World Water Monitoring Day, 18 September 2012
World Water Monitoring Day is an international education and outreach programme
that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources
around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local
reservoirs, rivers, streams, estuaries and other water bodies. An additional
initiative would be to inform the public on the real facts of drinking water
quality management in order to limit the spreading of misinformation regarding
the quality of tap water.
The coordinators of WWMD, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the
International Water Association (IWA) plan to expand participation to one
million people in 100 countries by 2012.
World Water Monitoring Day is officially celebrated on September 18; however, the
monitoring window was extended for the first time in 2009 from March 22 (World
Water Day) until December 31. Participants are encouraged to celebrate with WEF
and IWA in September or to observe their own WWMD anytime during the extended
window.
Tap water quality can be monitored for drinking, and rivers and streams for
effects on fish and other aquatic life. People are encouraged to choose any
borehole, river, stream, dam, or other Water body to safely monitor the Water
quality. In fact, one could even monitor the Water quality of the Water from a
household or community tap.
An easy-to-use test kit enables everyone from children to adults to sample local
water bodies for a core set of water quality parameters including temperature,
acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity) and dissolved oxygen (DO). Results are shared
with participating communities around the globe through the WWMD Web site.
Communities can request the assistance of their Local Municipality to test the
Water quality with them and discuss ways in which they can together improve or
maintain the Water quality in their communities.
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